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Mon, 03 Aug 2015 00:00:24 +0000enhourly1Occupy protesters: Professional and well-educatedhttp://www.salon.com/2013/01/29/occupy_protesters_professional_and_well_educated/
http://www.salon.com/2013/01/29/occupy_protesters_professional_and_well_educated/#commentsTue, 29 Jan 2013 14:33:00 +0000nlennardhttp://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13184769When Occupy Wall Street protests were their most buoyant, from fall 2011 to May 2012, rarely would a street march go by in New York without some suited onlooker shouting "Get a job!" to the careening crowds. As participants were well aware at the time -- and as a brand-new study affirms -- most participants had jobs. "I have three!" I recall one public school teacher retorting as a march snaked through Lower Manhattan.

A new study from CUNY's Joseph A. Murphy Institute for Worker Education and Labor Studies, based largely on a sample of protesters interviewed during a mass May Day rally last year, found that the majority of participants were white and well-educated (76 percent of respondents had a four-year degree). Two-thirds of Occupy protesters had professional jobs, the sociology study found, with nearly a third living in households with incomes of $100,000 or more. Meanwhile, nearly a third of the protesters had been laid off or lost a job and a similar number said they had more than $1,000 in credit card or student loan debt. A significant number of respondents were precariously or underemployed and 10 percent of respondents were unemployed and seeking work.